Elizabeth Masen was Edward Cullen's biological mother and was married to Edward Masen, Sr. She lived in Chicago, Illinois, along with Edward Sr. and Edward Jr. until she and her husband died of Spanish influenza in 1918.

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Elizabeth dedicated her whole life to her family, and provided her son with the love that her husband did not. During World War I, her son was eager to join the army and Elizabeth prayed every night that it would be over before he reached 18. However, shortly after her son turned 17, she, her son and her husband fell victims to the Spanish influenza in 1918. Elizabeth doted on her son, and Carlisle tells Bella Swan that she ruined her own chances of living by nursing Edward. While on her death bed in a hospital in Chicago, she said to Carlisle, "You must do everything in your power. What others cannot do, that is what you must do for my Edward." Carlisle still wonders to this day if Elizabeth knew he was a vampire, but will never have that answer.

Edward inherited all of Elizabeth's jewelry at her death, including his family fortune and their house in Chicago.

Edward gives Bella his mother's heart shaped diamond charm for her bracelet, along with proposing to Bella with Elizabeth's engagement ring in Eclipse. It is also mentioned that he has given Elizabeth's jewelry to both Esme and Alice. Bella described the ring is "a long oval, set with slanting rows of glittering round stones. The band was gold - delicate and narrow. The gold made a fragile web around the diamonds."

Carlisle's description of Elizabeth's dying wishes signifies that she may have realized that Carlisle wasn't human. This also theorizes that Elizabeth may have had a gift of sensing such things, supported by Edward's telepathy as well as their physical similarities. The psychic immunity that Bella inherited from her father also indicates that supernatural gifts could be hereditary.